Frozen Mice and Empty Magic
by Secret Time Lord
Summary: I reminisce about days where I had parents that loved me, a warm home filled with a large family and a scruffy mutt we had named Maxwell. Those days seemed like they'd never end. Everlasting, they created an illusion I had come to love, a warm soap-bubble that isolated me from the horrors of the world. Then that bubble burst in a shower of blood.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Living used to be nice. Enjoyable even. I can recall long days where I would romp and play in the grass with the sun kissing my skin and bleaching out my hair. Long summer afternoons spent rolling down warm hills, and glass-clear babbling brooks created the perfect combination. Autumn days filled with anticipation for winter, pumpkin and spices permeating the air, creating a mouthwatering smell. Incredibly long winters smothered snow and canned food, and biting winds that felt like knives on your skin when you stepped outside. Spring days brought rain-showers and fresh smelling earth being overturned for new life. I reminisce about days where I had parents that loved me, a warm home filled with a large family and a scruffy mutt we had named Maxwell. Those days seemed like they'd never end. Everlasting, they created an illusion I had come to love, a warm soap-bubble that isolated me from the horrors of the world.

Then the bubble burst in a shower of blood, and my naivety was dashed along with my family. I remember that day vividly; it isn't everyday your world burns. I still hear my mother's cries as her carefully constructed family fell to the vicious brutes who stole me away.

I still feel my heart pounding as I hid under the kitchen table, watching the blood from my father run into the mortar holding the tiles together, a lone pale hand contrasting sharply with the dark and sticky ground. My horrified sobs, so high-pitched, echoed around the room. I've tried so hard to forget the brutal ways I watched my family die before their bodies went up in dancing flames. So much blood, so much life wasted in such violent ways… It haunts me, the death of my family. It's hard not to have it plaguing my thoughts constantly.

It's not always the deaths, or the brutal force used that shadows my mind. It's also the loss of a child. It's the loss of a brilliant, innocent (and narcissistic, can't forget that) child who hadn't seen the world yet. In other words, me.

I would never again be a sweet, innocent little girl; I would become a lab rat, a prisoner, a madwoman, a liar, a thief, a murderer, and a victim. My soul was scarred the day I watched my little world fall. It was ripped apart. If you could see it today, it would no doubt look like a grotesque patch-work creature, comically horrific, something you couldn't dream even in the depths of human depravity. After that day, life became hell and death seemed like a sweet release.

The years after my loss of my family become blurred, a huge smudge of disoriented pain and nightmares, only pierced by the occasional bout of grim humor shared with other inmates in the concrete prison I called home. I nearly went mad, being the longest living Prisoner in my Prison of Steel. I watched people come and go like the tide, giving up learning about them. I looked on as they went through all the phases I went through; denial, anger, fear, hopelessness, cynicism, aggression, and finally, madness.

The day I escaped that concrete prison was the day I found a bittersweet peace once more. Of course, as fate would have it, that day was also the day I died.

_oOoOoOo_

Director Nick Fury was a very pleased man. His agents had recently found two figures, Captain America, and a child. The child was found in Northern Russia when a couple of his agents were tracking a couple of high-tech drug dealers, despite the fact that the kid was Irish or Scottish. Aside from the fact she had managed to live encased in ice, one fact stood out among the rest.

She didn't exist. Not as though you couldn't see her, but rather that legally, she had no file. Facial recognition didn't work, either. SHIELD had tried everything to figure out who she was, but aside from her physical stature and facial features, they had nothing on her. Absolutely nothing.

Frankly, it scared him, simply because she could be anyone. Anyone who had endured abuse, or torture for years. She was a mass of scar tissue, the one exception her face. The only lead they had on her was an old blueblood family in Great Britain, who had all burned to death nearly a hundred years ago.

Though these are intriguing facts, it wasn't the reason Fury was so gleeful. Both Captain America and this unnamed girl were due to awaken sometime today. He would finally have answers, after months of frustrated searching. He would no longer be frightened of this stick-thin haggard girl.

_oOoOoOo_

So, I've got a bit of this already written and planned, but I'm not entirely sure what to do with it yet. Mostly just OC getting to know everyone. I know a lot of people mock OCs, but I'm trying to get her to be not-a-Mary-Sue. I love my OC's.

If you like this story, head to my page to read some of my other things. I'm trying to fix up a couple of my older stories, so you can take the poll and decide what you like and don't like. Any input at all would be helpful.

I've got a nasty habit of starting a story and then ignoring it, so send me a PM telling me to hurry up with the next chapter if you feel like I'm going too slow. Thanks!

Secret Time Lord over and out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Steve Rogers awoke to finding himself in a hospital.

It was a rather nice hospital, clean and all, but something seemed off. Maybe it was the somewhat stale air, the lack of heat coming from his open window, or maybe it was the fact that the ballgame on the radio seemed really familiar. Steve felt a stir of unsettlement deep in his chest before a rather pretty nurse entered his room.

"Good morning. Or should I say, afternoon." She seemed a little nervous, a little on edge, and Steve wrote it off that she was checking up on _the_ Captain America. He eyed her a tad warily because if she was going to try to kiss him like that one secretary did, he'd have to tell her he wasn't interested. Though he couldn't deal with weepy dames, they were just… _unapproachable_. So, just to play it safe, he asked, "Where am I?"

"You're in a recovery room in New York City."

She acted very bizarrely, as though she was lying, her twitching fingers giving away her façade. Aside from the nurse's strange behavior, where was Peggy? He was sure that if he really was where the nurse claimed he was, Peggy would be there waiting for him to wake up.

"Where am I really?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Rogers watched as her voice rose a little shrilly and her fingers tightened around her clipboard, as though she would use it as a weapon if he gave any sign that he would attack. He almost snorted; what could a flimsy clipboard do against him, the super soldier? Suddenly, the missing piece clicks into place, proving he wasn't just paranoid. That ballgame was becoming increasingly familiar.

"The game, it's from May, 1941. I know 'cause I was there." He rose from the bed, in full blown panic; though he tried his hardest to keep his voice steady and low and a part of him was quite pleased when it didn't so much as waver. "Now, I'm gonna ask you again. Where am I?"

"Captain Rogers?"

_Yeah, that's me_, he snarled sarcastically in his head. Where was Peggy? What had Hydra done to her? Hadn't he killed Red Skull? _No, of course not, men like that never truly die, their ideals live on._ He hated when he answered his own questions. "Who are you?"

That was the wrong question obviously, because two men in black outfits barged into the room. Steve briefly fretted before remembering that he was Captain America, not the sickly kid from Brooklyn that he used to be. When they got too close for comfort, he instinctively pushed them into the wall which ripped.

Steve barely heard the nurse's yell of "Captain Rogers, wait!" before he took off running down the hallway.

_oOoOoOo_

Rhys felt herself rise to consciousness, hoping that she was dead and she could finally be with her family. If she was judging by the pain flooding her limbs, her request was denied, once again.

A fleeting thought of question flew through Rhys' mind and she felt torn between running out of the infirmary and snuggling into the wide bed that felt like heaven. It had been so long since she had had a proper bed, and this one felt so warm, and soft, and she was beginning to drift off…

Reality hit her like a ton of bricks. She wrenched herself from the bed and into a crouching position on the ground, despite her protesting limbs. Bed?! What? It was impossible; prisoners like her never had beds. They had cold straw mats on even colder pavement, with frigid algae and muck dripping into their eyes and seeping into the rags they called clothes. Prisoners would only have beds if the High Enforcer had taken a shine to them, which was bad, and always ended in death.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. She needed to get out _now._

Momentarily caught up in her thoughts, a sound not unlike crunching bones met her ears a second after the fact. Rhys looked down at her feet in complete bewilderment, feeling her puzzlement drain to dread when she saw that she was dressed like a painted fancy lady, with a thin green shirt, and pants made from an odd material. It felt like it used to be tough, but was worn down. Why would they dress her in trousers? The crunching noise had originated from a teacup that had been sitting by her bed, which she had jumped on, cutting her already sore feet to ribbons. Swearing briefly under her breath, she lowered her feet to the pavement, wincing when the shards of porcelain cut her feet even worse and blood began to seep onto the pavement. Why did she have a thrice-damned teacup next to the thrice-damned bed?

Every muscle in her body tensed when she heard the handle to the door of her room engage.

She leapt unthinkingly at the man who had just opened the door, ignoring the pain burning through her body, focused solely on the fact that she had escaped once from a high-security cell once, and she would do it again. She was _not _going to be caged. She had tasted freedom, and it was incredibly seductive.

_oOoOoOo_

As Steve was running, he heard the slap of bare feet behind him. Startled briefly, he glanced over his shoulder, catching an impression of an underfed kid with long ratty brown hair and bloody feet.

_Another victim of Hydra. _Steve thought sadly. The kid behind him looked worse than Bucky did.

_Damn, new recruit. _Rhys swore vehemently, catching sight of the tall blonde running in front of her. Even though new recruits were always a source of entertainment for her - they always were so horrified and appalled at the prisoners – This one could pose a problem in her escape.

Blondie broke out of the door before Rhys, who hesitated when she heard the cacophony of noises outside. She tore out of the door and saw massive colorful signs and boxy automobiles, which through her for a loop. Wasn't it always below zero outside? She was missing something. She was missing a very _big _something that was staring her in the face, glaringly obvious to anyone else.

Her prone form must've irritated Blondie in some way because next thing she knew she was being drug along behind him with her clammy, scabbed hand lost in his large warm one. Ok, this man was obviously a recruit, either who didn't know who she was, or was attempting to escape just like her. She snorted.

Steve didn't know why he grabbed the girl's hand. He assumed it was instinct to not leave comrades behind. He felt awful for her too. Why was she so roughed up? A chilling answer crept into his mind, though he tried to block it. He would not think of this girl being torn to pieces in front of large, beefy, leering men. Just no.

He pulled the two of them out onto the street, still sprinting, hearing the girl pant behind him. Steve stopped, unable to pull the girl any farther and unwilling to let go of her limp sweaty hand. The abruptness of his stop caused the tiny girl to stumble straight into his back. He felt the girl slump next to him, dragging in ragged breaths and rubbing her nose. He started to apologize, but couldn't choke out the words, for he was still imagining her being tortured.

Multiple cars surrounded the mismatched duo and a black man with an eye patch stepped out of one of them. Steve began to feel the cooling blood from her feet by his feet and refused to look down out at it. True, he had seen blood, but that was in the heat of war. He hadn't ever seen another person hurt in cold blood.

"Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there. But we thought it best to break it to you slowly." He spoke a little slowly, like speaking to a small child or a wild animal. Steve shuddered, imagining a similar voice croon to a little girl, a younger version of the girl standing next to him.

"Break what?" Seriously, where was Peggy? This whole day had been an emotional rollercoaster for him, and he was ready for a nap. Leaving Peggy and the Howling Commandoes, waking up in a Hydra set, meeting this strange girl, running out of the supposed Hydra set, imagining a little girl being raped, and now being surrounded by strange cars in a strange environment; it was almost too much to handle!

"You've been asleep Cap. For almost 70 years."

Steve let his jaw drop, and decided to just roll with it; it's what the little girl next to him was doing. Steve had nearly forgotten the girl was still there and that he was still clutching her hand. He dropped it in embarrassment.

Rhys looked at 'Cap' out of the corner of her eye after he dropped her hand and saw he had gone pale. He looked about ready to faint.

"You alright?" The tiny brunette asked, though her motivation wasn't concern. If the behemoth blonde toppled over, he might crush her to death. The black man looked at her in amusement, either at her voice or he had detected her motive for asking.

"Yeah," His voice was faint; he hadn't yet realized she was more worried for herself "yeah. I just… I had a date." 'Cap' stayed silent, lost in thought.

"Who are you?"

"Some Enforcers you are." She sneered, resorting to a familiar tactic; taunting. Fury raised an eyebrow at her disdain and gestured that she elaborate. "Subject 985445, high-security block AB, cell 14, #1 Undesirable, at your service." She completed the recitation with a little mocking curtsy. She presented her wrist just in case they couldn't remember the number '985445'.

'Cap' looked at her wrist and blanched. On her wrist were branded the numbers she had rattled off, along with the initials 'RRM'. Seriously, he might puke if he imagined a little screaming kid being branded like cattle. He could already smell the burning flesh.

Steve nausea subsided, and horror replaced it. Hold on, subject? Undesirable? Cell? What was she, a science experiment? A prisoner? A slave? A combination of the three?

Fury ushered the duo into a car before continuing the conversation. Rhys paused before stepping into it. She really shouldn't go, but why not? It's not like she had anything to lose.

_How bizarre,_ she thought wonderingly at the odd vehicle. At this point, she was attempting to block out the pain shooting through her body and the blood leaking from her feet. She wasn't too successful. Still, she had had to block out the pain nearly every day of her life, so she just grit her teeth, just like usual. She thought she saw the eye-patch man grimace at the state of her. She bared her teeth like the feral child she was. His eyebrow just rose.

She was sure that she would be able to think clearer if she wasn't in such pain. Maybe she wouldn't have stepped into the fume leaking beetle.

"I'd like your name, please. Not your number. We've had a hell of a time trying to find out who you are, and I haven't come all this way just so you can recite digits." Rhys regarded the man with suspicion again, wondering if he was going to imprison her again, or was legitimate and was concerned about the well-being of a little girl. She could've snorted; there were no people like the latter.

"I could ask you the same thing. How do I know you aren't an Enforcer?"

Steve could hear the title in her voice, but if anything, he was more puzzled and horrified. He felt his imagination was running away with him, for he was still imagining the rape scene. He was almost certain now that she hadn't been deflowered in such a brutal way, because she wasn't acting like a victim. She was very much a sarcastic teenager, and Steve could see the black man sitting across from them silently fuming.

"I'm not an Enforcer. I-", Rhys interrupted him with two simple words. "Prove it."

"I can't. Just take my word. I'm not an Enforcer, I'm Director Fury, of SHIELD, a top secret government branch."

"I call myself Rhys. Just Rhys, nothing else."

"Steve!" Rhys looked at him sideways, and he flushed at his eagerness to get in a word in the rapid-fire conversation. "My name's Steve Rogers, Miss. It's a pleasure to meet you." A corner of Rhys mouth tugged up at his antics. He seemed like an over-eager puppy, though his eyes spoke of an older man inside a young man's body.

Maybe, just maybe, the two of them might get along.

That is, if he was speaking the truth.

_oOoOoOo_

Ok, I thought I'd be able to hold off posting, but apparently I can't. I am horrible at pacing myself. I just got so damn excited!

Yay! People are reading this shit! Thank you krikanalo for reviewing, and thank you whoever chose things on my poll! I really appreciate it.

I'm going back to school soon, so maybe things won't be posted bing-bang-boom like this, and maybe they will. I dunno.

Ta-ta!

Secret Time Lord over and out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Steve was pummeling his punching bag, lost in thought. He thought of Bucky, who was always willing to get him a date, even if the lady ignored him completely, and of the Howling Commandoes. He recalls Peggy, the sweet dame who cared about a scrawny, sickly kid from Brooklyn. He relived her smile, her captivating eyes. Steve still heard the despair in her voice as she cried to him over the radio, and the sobs she tried to repress as they set up their date. The date they never were able to have.

Completely accidently, he punches the bag right off the chains.

As he bent over to grab another one, he took a look at Rhys and compulsively grinned despite his nasty mood. She's slumped over an ancient typewriter she picked up at an antique shop, fast asleep. A sheet of half-filled paper was sitting in the register, still waiting for the next word.

When she had picked up the broken thing, Steve had told her that it would never work; it had to be at least a hundred years old. That night, she had stayed up researching how the damn thing worked, and fixed it, just to prove him wrong, just for spite. She had woken him that morning clacking away smugly. She hadn't stopped clacking since. It drove him up the wall.

Rhys had been given the apartment next to him and the two had exchanged keys. They both were incredibly insomniac and would go into the others apartment to watch movies and listen to music. She had no idea how anything worked, and Steve had spent an entire day just showing her how to work the basics. For example, she had no idea had to work a tap or the toilet. Once she had learned those, her learning took off. Now, a week later, she was reading history books like there was no tomorrow.

Steve had no idea how she had crammed so much learning in such a short time. When he asked why she was so focused on learning, she had told him her ignorance had killed people, and it was best that she learn as much as she could, plus she had decided she loved reading. She had been deprived of knowledge. When he laughingly replied that the world didn't rest on her shoulders, she had told him that he didn't know what he was talking about, though he couldn't take her seriously because she had pencils stuck in her hair at odd angles, about five books open around her cross-legged legs, no less than 4 notebooks with her ungainly scrawl scribbled all over them, her typewriter sitting across a large tome about some philosophy he couldn't pronounce , and a smudge of ink across her cheek and down her neck. She had been clinkering around on her typewriter while he had been talking to her and her fingers were covered in grease as she tried to fix it.

When he grinned at her, she grinned right on back, all the bit the madwoman she claimed to be. She did the oddest things, like talking to the books she read when she disagreed. When she was bored, she would drag him all over town, skipping down the sidewalk while holding onto his hand. Other times, he had caught her soldering in the middle of the night, or looking into the horizon like it contained some secret she could uncover. When she picked up the typewriter, she would type away furiously and all of her free time was eaten up.

He remembered he had been very curious about what she wrote about.

Rhy never had told him what she wrote.

Now was the time to find out. Grinning mischievously, Steve began to peek over her thin shoulder, but before he could, Director Fury walked into the gym.

"Trouble sleeping?"

Rogers reply was a mix of bitterness and amusement, trying to cover up how badly Fury startled him, "I slept for seventy years. I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world. Like Miss Rhys there. I hear she has to pull you out of your apartment every day."

He ignored the last part of Fury's statement. "I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made mistakes along the way. Some very recently." He had no idea what Fury was talking about.

"You here with a mission, sir?"

"I am." Now what could that be?

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury passed a file on the tesseract to Steve.

"Hydra's secret weapon." You couldn't miss the pain and sorrow that filled those three words. He couldn't help but feel hatred towards the damn cube. It had ruined everything. Though, granted, without it, he wouldn't have met Peggy, or the Howling Commandoes or Rhys. He wondered if it was selfish to be glad it existed.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key for unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." Now does it? Why can't the world some its problem without needing alien technology? Geez, now he was channeling Rhys.

"Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you and Rhys up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything could surprise me." Steve was a little worried about what he meant about Rhys too. If anything, Steve considered himself as Rhys friend and didn't want to see her harmed.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. How is she doing?" Motioning to the asleep Rhys, who let out a soft snore. Steve couldn't help the affection spreading through his heart. It was such a rare sight to her asleep. She was like the little spit-fire sister he never had.

"Rhys? She's fine, I suppose."

"Good. There are debriefing packages in your apartments. I trust you can fill her in on the rest." Rhys arm moved about and clattered into her typewriter. Fury didn't miss the way Steve's lips quirked when he looked down at the kid.

"Anything else you can tell us about the Tesseract we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean." Fury gave a nod and left while Steve began to shake Rhys. Steve regretted waking her up, but alas, it needed to be done.

_oOoOoOo_

Rhys gaped at the files covering her desk, surprised that there were others like her. Other people with sad stories and breathtaking abilities. Tears of disbelief and joy prickled at the corners of her eyes and she let the salty globes fall.

Rhys was a lot more lonely and lost than she let on.

She knew she was different; she knew there was a reason the Laboratory had wanted her to torture and test. Why else would the Lab go through all the trouble of murdering her whole family just for one little five year old? They wanted her completely isolated without chance of escape, only she had escaped in the end. If she was isolated, she would be more likely to be weak, and no thoughts of escape or aggression would be filtered through her brackish mind. Only this plan had failed the Imprisoners spectacularly; that much time spent alone with your thoughts changed a person fundamentally.

She had known she was different even before she was moved to high-security. Though she hadn't known the exact reason people would avoid her, it was made clear when she had burnt that Enforcer to death and the Higher Authority had moved from simple tests to more elaborate and painful ones.

Her difference had made her a loner in her younger years outside of her prison, and had left her completely solitary once she was put in high-security. Her constant loneliness had changed her. It had made her secretive and doubting. Throughout her life she had learned to trust no one, save for herself. She had always been so lonely, so distant, so cold, and so desperate for human touch. No one had saved her. She did not believe in heroes or God, yet heroes and gods were staring her in the face.

She had escaped that night to end it all, to die, so she wouldn't be lonely anymore. So she could see her family once more. The allure of seeing her parents and siblings was great. She could hardly remember them. Her mother had faded to only brief memories of cool, ringed hands and a soft voice with the lingering scent of lavender. Her father was now just memories of leather shoes, and cigar smoke. She couldn't remember all her sibling's names, and that was killing her. She knew she had four sisters (originally eight, but four had died in the Great War), and three brothers (She could've had four, but one was stillborn, not uncommon when she was from). She could remember only half of their names. She longed to refresh her memory in some sort of afterlife.

Even with Steve around, she had to catch and restrain herself from sinking too low in the bathtub, or stepping out of her window or even taking a carving knife and slipping between her ribs. This new freedom was tantalizing and she had to remind herself there were rules too. She put on a brave front for Steve because he had lost so much as well, but inside she knew she was broken, Undesirable. She couldn't have Steve broken in turn because she couldn't handle life. It was too cruel and harsh beyond belief. So she was strong, for his sake.

Steve had helped fill the loneliness, he really did, but he was one man when she needed a family, and there was just so much difference in their lifestyles before they woke up from the ice. He had been a soldier, ready to die for his country at the drop of a hat for only a short time, whereas she had been yearning to die her whole life and was unable to do so, even now when she had control over her life. With her biggest wish not available, she had been lost, floundering in this new world. She absorbed herself in books and reading to block out the world and learn so she wasn't completely ignorant.

Now, in an alien world where she was needed, and death wasn't an option, she had found a purpose. At least, for the mean time. She had a purpose; to find the Tesseract, to take down a Norse god, to be part of the Avengers.

So Rhys stood as though struck with hot tears streaming down her cheeks, simply stunned at the files covering her desk that spoke of strange people, who were isolated and alone like she was. She had found a temporary sort of family.

She belonged, to a strange place, filled with strange people, yeah, but also filled with brilliant people.

Tony Stark, genius, volatile, self-obsessed, philanthropist, and built himself a suit of armor that could fly_. Brilliant._

Bruce Banner, specialist in gamma rays, a doctor, and due to an unfortunate accident, turns into a huge green creature when angered. She couldn't help sympathizing. She knew what it was like to be isolated because of whom and what you were. A small part of her wondered if he would feel the same way about her and her… _problem._

Natasha Romanoff, the best spy and assassin the world has seen in a while. Rhys felt jealous of the beautiful ginger and her obvious grace in a battlefield. She couldn't resist comparing herself to the Russian. Romanoff's vibrant curls were stunning even without comparing them to her own lank mousy waves, and the Russian's flawless skin made her all the more aware to the scars littering her body like a battlefield.

Clint Barton, a brilliant marksman, and known for his skill with a bow and arrow. She couldn't help but be impressed when she saw the acrobatics he and Romanoff were capable of.

And finally, her very own Steve Rogers. Known as Captain America, he was the world's first superhero. Taller than he used to be, and stronger as well. She had seen the pictures before his transformation, and she had to admit, he was quite attractive as a shrimpy kid. She had found another lost soul in Steve, and related to his loss. He had been so sweet to her in the past week. When he thought she was reading too much, he would distract her with chocolate (something she found she quite enjoyed) or a trip to the Pictures or cinema (Steve's words, she called them movies like the rest of the modern world), or a home cooked meal (she had found that Steve was good at cooking, though not too good with electronics). Many evenings had ended with the two of them covered in flour and bits of lettuce while giggling their heads off. She felt this had been the happiest she had ever been.

Another thing was bothering her. She felt affection towards Steve, not unlike friendship if she knew how that felt. It also worried her about how a broken doll could feel. She had been unfeeling for her whole life, and this sudden influx of emotion unsettled her, discombobulated her completely. She wondered what love felt like sometimes. To her, love was just words on a page, hard and cold. Of course, she had read descriptions of love, and about Steve and Peggy, but she had no clue what love felt like. It bothered her immensely. She wondered if she could love her new teammates. She wondered if they would love her in return.

Among all these amazing people with flying metal suits and assassin skills, they were asking her, the lonely, broken, scrawny, teenaged girl with 'magical' powers to join in and defeat a Norse god called Loki, and gain the Earth a cube of immeasurable power. A cube that released painful memories of her years in a cage. Years that had her shuddering in fear and pain despite her uncaring attitude towards her past. It would make any detached person quiver. Yet here she was, finally ready to face her demons and all she had to do was follow orders.

How could she possibly say no?

_oOoOoOo_

Thank you everyone who's read my story so far! I really am thankful. This has taken me quite a bit of time, and I'm glad the fruits of my labor are being enjoyed.

Secret Time Lord over and out


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Steve was busy reviewing Bruce Banner's file, which Rhys thought was ridiculous, simply because she had the thing memorized. All he had to do was ask and she would recite.

She was currently stifling laughter at Agent Coulson, who was practically vibrating in excitement at meeting Captain America. Every once in a while, the convulsions of suppressed laughter would rock her, to which Steve would look at her with concern crumpling his brow, at which point Rhys would choke down the giggles.

Steve actually was worried for her. Many a morning he would wake up to see her pressed against him on his bed, shaking and crying in her sleep. It tore at him to have such a frayed friend and not be able to help. She shut him out when he asked. She told him he wouldn't be able to handle it. Anger was an emotion he felt to be dismissed so easily and to be considered too weak to handle her past. But he composed himself and didn't ask anymore. Instead he joked with her and threw flour and other food items at her when they were cooking. It was his way of helping her, and distracting her.

Once in a while she would get a far-off look about her and start murmuring nonsensical things to herself. Frankly, it terrified him. Rhys looked quite insane when she did that. A moment later she would be back to normal and would pick up where they had left off. Now, here on a jet, she kept shaking and he wondered if Rhys was really as alright as she let on.

All in all, she thought that Steve had spiked her morning coffee. Either that or she was just hysterical from staying up all night cramming and stressing about meeting her new comrades. Anyway, she was quite giggly this morning.

Steve spoke up "So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Rhys felt the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes and say something sarcastic like 'Haven't you read the file yet?', but she quashed that notion because it would hurt Steve beyond belief. She found he was quite sensitive to teasing insults like that. Well, when he wasn't in a teasing mood.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. He thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" He sounded amused, Rhys couldn't help but agree. Contrary to popular belief, Steve did notice Coulson's fanatic attitude towards himself.

"Not so much. When he's got that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking." When Steve looked confused, Rhys did roll her eyes. While Steve had been moping (or distracting her), Rhys had been discovering the modern world. Granted, Rhys had time to cope with her broken self while she thought (hoped) she had been dying, while Steve had just come from the middle of a war. But that was beside the point.

"He's like a genius." She offered which had Steve nodding. Agent Coulson scowled at her from behind Steve's shoulder, jealous that a teenage girl demanded more attention from his hero than he did. Once again, Rhys had to choke off her bubbling laughter at his envy. Just to spite the agent, she continued, "Did you read his work they had in the file? Simply brilliant."

"Ah, no." Steve looked away in embarrassment while Rhys just stared at him.

"You're serious? You didn't bother reading it at all? You've got a leg up on me, and you didn't read it?" Rhys was incredulous; baffled that Steve wouldn't even try. Steve couldn't help but blush at her choice of words. Innocent, he was, but he _was _a teenager once. Leg up on her indeed.

"Well, I wouldn't be able to understand it!" Steve defended himself and his pink ears, "Besides, you know how to work the dang computer." Rhys felt herself grow teasing because Steve was obviously trying to hide his flushed face.

"But that's beside the point! I didn't know what a radio was last week, and you had to teach me how to use the tap." Steve squirmed at her telling-off " Geez, if I had known you didn't get computers, I would've taught you!"

Coulson interrupted their bickering. "I gotta say, it's an honor to meet to officially." He redirected his conversation to Rogers, once again ignoring Rhys, at which she silently giggled. "I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." She let a little a chuckle out, reminded of the popular vampire story, Twilight that she had made Steve watch with her. According to Steve's barely suppressed smile, she assumed he had remembered as well.

The agent backpedaled hastily, "I mean, I was… I was present while you were unconscious. You know it's really, it's just a… just a huge honor to have you on board."

"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job."

"Oh you are. Absolutely." Coulson seemed horrified that anyone would even doubt the fantastical Captain America. Even Captain America. "Uh… we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little… old fashioned?"

"Everything that's happening, the things about to happen, people might just need a little old fashioned."

The rest of the flight was spent in silence.

_oOoOoOo_

When they got off of the aircraft, Steve and Rhys found themselves on what appeared to be a ship. It was a very large ship, with many people milling about who were checking on planes, running around training, barking out orders. It was organized chaos, if there was such a thing.

Rhys was quite amazed at everything, and she was content just wandering around, trailing after Steve. Her brain seemed to be in overload; she had never seen the ocean before, let alone a massive ship with a runway for airplanes.

When she got over her shock, she saw Steve talking with a man who had dark, curly hair. When she saw his profile, she recognized him as Dr. Banner. He seemed very unsure of himself and quite introverted next to Steve. _Well, _she amended; _everyone seems small next to Steve. _

Rhys walked up behind Steve just in time to hear Banner say, "Is that the only word on me?"

"Only word I care about." Steve spoke clipped and businesslike, though Rhys couldn't fathom why. It's not as though Banner would get upset at every little thing.

"Must be strange for you, all of this."

Rhys watched as Steve caught sight of the group of pilots jogging around and replied a little nostalgically, "Well, this is actually kind of familiar."

Rhys gulped when Banner saw her hiding behind Steve, eavesdropping. Oh dear.

_oOoOoOo_

Well, I hope you guys like it. Things are going to be picking up a bit, hopefully. This chapter took a bit of work and sorry if it feels rushed. School started, and I'm a bit busier than I anticipated. Thanks for reading and please R & R!

Secret Time Lord over and out.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Dr. Bruce Banner was chatting with Steve Rogers, Captain America, when he met the youngest (kind of) of the Avengers.

He couldn't really pinpoint her age, somewhere between 14 and 16 if he had to guess. She had long mouse-colored hair (little did he know that same hair had been ambushed with a hairbrush by Steve while Rhys ran around shrieking), and had a fire in her eyes that surprised him. This girl, Rhys as her file had said, was a fighter. She had silvery scars that crisscrossed over her arms, and it seemed like no square inch of skin wasn't ruined, save for her face. Her skin was disturbingly pale which suggested lack of sunlight, though she had a smattering of light freckles across her nose, showing recent activity in the sun.

The flesh around her eyes was slightly hollowed out, and her arms looked delicate, like twigs. If he was a poet, he might describe her as a hardy moss or thistle rather than a rose. She looked haunted and starving. She wasn't what you would call beautiful. Her cheekbones were high, and her nose straight and proud, but her mouth seemed too small, too round, and her forehead was too large to sit proportionally with the rest of her oval face. The file had said she was much sturdier than she appeared, though Bruce found himself doubting it. She looked like a child, not a warrior or a soldier.

One thing attracted Bruce's attention in particular; her eyes. They were a vibrant green, a color that closely resembled fields of wild grass, or a bright green apple. He could see a fire in them, along with something that was shattered, so broken that tugged at his heartstrings. He could tell she was a proud creature and wouldn't accept pity, and the scars pitter-pattering across her body showed that she wasn't easily crushed. Her arms were crossed and he couldn't stop staring at the thick ropes of scarred flesh draped over them. Her hands looked so destroyed, he had to wonder what had happened and how she could hold anything. They were gnarled and crooked, probably had been broken multiple times and not set. In her stance, she radiated a calm confidence that drew you to her.

Despite all of this, there was something hostile that clung to her. It screamed _danger! _She seemed unapproachable and cold. She had power in spades, swirling around her, the leisurely stance of a big cat, an assassin waiting for the first opportunity to strike. The only reason the Hulk wasn't stirring at her power was her vulnerability. She seemed so harmless, a broken child.

She was a walking contradiction.

Said walking contradiction that was looking at him like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Uh, hullo."

"Hi, you must be Rhys." He stuck out his hand "I'm Bruce Banner."

She shyly took his hand, and Bruce felt himself soften towards the deadly, broken girl.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop. It just… happened." Steve looked at her questioningly and she flushed, dropping her eyes to the ground.

There was an awkward pause and then the loud voice of the Black Widow startled the three of them, "You may want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

The ship shuddered and Rhys braced herself. _What in the world?_

"Is this a submarine?"

"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" The three of them walked over to the edge of the ship and look down, seeing massive turbines rise out of the water like mythical beasts. When the ship began to rise, the three of them stared gaping as their clothes billowed around them.

"Oh no, this is much worse."

_oOoOoOo_

Rhys stood somewhat on her lonesome, once again overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the 'ship'. She only stood in the control room, and felt insignificant in her dark blue thin shirt and denim trousers surrounded by these professionally dressed workers and sleek touchscreen computers.

Rhys could hear all the conversations going on around her, though she didn't listen in on any of them. Steve was being harassed by Coulson, Romanoff was busy talking to Fury, and Banner had long since disappeared into whatever lab he was given. She looked around, trying to find something to do when she was given the brilliant idea to find Banner.

"Um, Ms. Romanoff?"

The woman herself pulled out of the conversation to glare at the short girl who lost her nerve. The woman was terrifying. But Rhys could see something buried in her eyes – secrets.

"Er, could you, perhaps, maybe, show me where Dr. Banner went?"

Rhys felt the agent gave her purposefully confusing and vague directions to the lab. Two rights, one left, middle one in the fork… or was it left again? Frustrated, she looked around for cameras, and then pulled out a tiny glass marble from her pocket. She tapped it twice and then put it on the ground. It began rolling forward at a quick pace and she ran after it to keep up.

A few wrong turns led her to a glass door that swished open. Her marble kept rolling, so she kept following it, hardly looking up.

_oOoOoOo_

This is how Bruce Banner meets Rhys for the second time. He was turned around looking around on one of the screens when he heard the door open. Turning around, he saw no one until there was a sudden body colliding with his own.

"Oof!"

Banner's hands flew down to see what had hit him, only to end nestled in brown hair. He looked down to see a very sheepish looking young girl at his feet.

"Hello." She clambered up to stand at an uncomfortably close distance to him. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." Even as his stomach twinged in pain.

She backed away. "So, what are you up to down here?"

"Ah, I was just poking around."

"Really? So was I." She grinned at him like they were old friends. "Looking for you, actually."

Banner was momentarily surprised and very flattered.

"I, um, had a few questions. For you."

"Really? Fire away."

"I was about Selvig's notes, actually. I was reading them, and I was thinking about quantum physics, and the roles they play, and I was curious about Heisenberg uncertainty principle. I looked it up, and I think I get it, I mean, I know that the more you know about where one particle is, its momentum gets screwy, but I was wondering why it is why it is."

"Why? Well, I hate to say it, but that's just the way it is. It's a fundamental property of quantum physics, and it has to do with the matter wave of all quantum objects."

"Oh, like how there's a limit to high you can jump under so much pressure?"

"Precisely. Well, more like a limit to how much strain your muscles can take jumping under so much pressure, because it varies, but essentially, yes."

"Also, I have a few questions about radioactive decay, resonant tunneling diodes, zero time tunneling, and how the superconducting niobium-titanium magnets in RHIC affect the heavy ions."

_oOoOoOo_

When Steve turned around to talk to Rhys, he found she had disappeared.

"Rhys?"

Natasha Romanoff heard him and told him where she had gone. He felt irrationally betrayed. Following her instructions, he found her leaning on a counter having a cheerful chat with Dr. Banner, if her grin was anything to go by. Walking in, he caught what they were talking about.

" – That's why heavy ion fusion is such a – Hello Captain." Science. No wonder she had left.

"Hey Steve."

"Rhys. Dr. Banner." _("Please, call me Bruce.")_ "I found where we're bunking. Just figuring you'd like the heads up."

"Great! Will you show me? One second, Bruce was talking about _heavy ion fusion._" The last part was said with great emphasis. Steve got the hint.

"I'll go… wait outside then." But they weren't listening, already talking about theories and colanders, though Steve was pretty sure that last one was for washing vegetables and not colliding microscopic particles together.

A few minutes later and the normally apathetic teen was bouncing alongside him, spouting off gibberish. Steve was sure half of it was utter nonsense to confuse him.

_oOoOoOo_

Hey guys! I know it's been two weeks, and sorry about that. School is way more engaging that it has any reason to be. Thanks for reading. R & R?

Secret Time Lord over and out


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rhys looked around her room on the Helicarrier. There was a steel cot bolted to the floor, with a comfy looking mattress covered in a white sheet and a plain grey comforter folded at the foot of her bed. Lovely. There was a wooden desk and a rolling chair, a private bathroom (white and grey tiles) and a window looking out over the sea.

_Really, quite posh._

She dragged her new suitcase and typewriter case over to the desk, sitting in the plush chair. Deciding to unpack bags, she reluctantly pulled herself from her seat to unzip the suitcase and put away her new clothes.

She and Steve had gone shopping together. He found a little boutique that had things from his time. He picked out several old collared shirts and slacks while she went to try things on. He laughed when she found a perfect bright green pleated skirt that flung itself out when she spun around. They agreed that skirts should be judged by how far they spun out, not by how they looked.

A knock came from the door.

"Rhys?" Came the muffled call. _Steve._

She pulled open the massive door to see the man in his too-tight t-shirt.

"Something's going on in the main room. Thought you might want to come along."

_oOoOoOo_

"We got a hit! 67 percent match. Wait, cross match, 79 percent!"

"Location?" It was Coulson who spoke. _Always gotta be at the center of things, huh?_ Rhys thought bitterly, even though she was attempting to hide in the shadows.

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." _Germany? Huh, a spot for dictators. Who knew?_ Rhys felt she really needed to get a grip on her sarcasm; otherwise Steve wouldn't hang around her anymore.

"Captain, you're up." Fury declared, and Rhys followed Steve out to where ever he was going.

_oOoOoOo_

"Kneel before me." The crowd continued to run about screaming, and Rhys felt vaguely nauseous.

"I said. Kneel!" The crowd obeyed this time and they all kneeled to Loki. He looked rather pleased. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy as you scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." Rhys felt this man was deluded, no way in hell would she freely accept being ruled so tyrannically again. His words were slick and oily and slid off his tongue like the Inquisitor's. She shuddered at the things people had been forced to confess and the injuries they had even after one session with them.

"Not to men like you."

One older man looked mutinous, and stood up, refusing to kneel. Loki looked faintly amused and Rhys wanted to punch him in the face. She would enjoy seeing his nose broken. She would enjoy seeing him broken like _ӓiti._ "There are no men like me."

"There are always men like you."

"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." Loki still looked amused that this man was willing to say what he thought. _Bastard._

Just then, Steve intervened wearing his Captain America uniform. Rhys leaned forward in her seat in the moving helicopter.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing over everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Steve's voice was deceptively calm.

"Ah, the soldier. A man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Mentally, Rhys was cheering Steve on. Where did he get these lines? They were brilliant! Natasha positioned the aircraft they were in overhead of the two men.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!" She shouted over the loudspeakers. Loki attacked Steve and screamed, "Kneel!"

"Not today!" The two begin fighting in earnest and Rhys couldn't help but wince when ever Steve crashed into the ground. Raising her hand inconspicuously, she softened the air near the ground so Steve wouldn't hurt as bad. She saw a look of incredulousness fly across Loki's face for a brief second, but it was so fleeting she half-believed it to be a trick of her mind.

A loud noise blared from the speakers so suddenly Rhys squeaked and fell out of her chair before realizing it was music. A figure flew over wearing red and gold armor and stood before Loki. Rhys realized with a jolt that this must be Tony Stark. Very ostentatious, wasn't he?

"Make your move, Reindeer Games." She watched almost non-believing as Loki raised his hands cautiously. "Good move." Stark commented blithely, his slightly robotic voice carrying far so Rhys could hear him clearly.

_oOoOoOo_

Rhys was staring at Loki as Stark and Steve bickered. Loki for his part was looking quite disturbed at having the ferocious teen scrutinizing him so thoroughly. He squirmed around in his seat and Rhys bared her teeth at him, making him squirm even more. He thought she looked feral, like a wild animal.

She sat opposite him with her legs folded underneath her Indian style and her hands were positioned on the armrests so that she could spring up at a moment's notice. She heard Stark say, "Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." And she answered automatically.

"No shit, Sherlock." Stark blinked at her in surprise as though he just noticed she was there. He snorted when he saw her staring unblinkingly at Loki.

"He's not about to go anywhere, you know."

"Not about that. I'm cataloguing information on him." Stark scoffed.

"Cataloguing? What kind of information?" Stark looked interested. It might have been that the only information he was able to glean about Loki was that he was a psychopath.

"Just odds and ends." Though she easily could've said that his skin and eyes kept flickering blue and red, she didn't. He was very strange looking. He had similar energy to Rhys, just below his skin, spinning ice blue, and red bursts of color in his green eyes, looking not unlike solar flares.

Steve looked at her sharply, silently conveying the impression of 'I know you're lying'. She shrugged unapologetically, still with her eyes riveted on Loki, fascinated with his strange colors. He just fidgeted, unused to being scrutinized so thoroughly by a female. Or a male, either way. He seemed to gather the nerve to glare at her and his eyes widened just a little bit. He looked questioningly at her but she narrowed her eyes.

Steve looked back and forth at them, wondering what had happened. _Were they having a conversation?_ He was kind of jealous.

Lightning and thunder begin to shake the jet and Loki looked even more uncertain. Tony was almost positive that he heard a whimper coming from the pale man. That little noise brought memories flooding back into Rhys mind.

_The woman in her cell was new. Her hair was gleaming gold and silver in the dank light. Her arm hung at an angle with a sharp sliver of bone poking from the side. She was curled up, nursing her bruised and aching ribs. The light darkened. She could barely see anything. She clenched her eyes as they adjusted. When she opened them, she saw shapes moving. _

"_Hei?"_

_The shapes shrunk back into the shadows. The woman extended her arm, pleading._

"_Auttakaa minua…ole hyvä"_

_They approached again, quickly this time, swarming over her. She let out a yell of pain. A small clammy hand clamped over her mouth, and she choked on the filthy taste. It tasted of raw sewage and cold mold. Rips and tears filled the air with sound as the small children tore her clothes into shreds. She whimpered and whined as wet feet stomped on her ribs and broken bones._

_There was a spoken command in a language she had thought she would never hear again. _

"_Stop."_

_All the children backed away, still clutching whatever they had stolen from her. A small girl, maybe 7 if she had to guess, stood in their midst. She was a good foot taller than the other kids. She too was barefoot and clammy, but in her hand was a small flame, illuminating the whole cell, and the woman could see her hair was matted and tangled into clumps, and she was bleeding from several open wounds. A greenish-purple infected cut seeped pus from her tiny hand. _

_The other children were better kept, but younger. Only one girl had a complete shirt, and the other children had their heads shaved. Most of the children had strips of cloth tied together into makeshift blankets and shirts, but a lot of them were naked. You could see every sharp bone under their skin, like silk taut over glass._

"_What are you called?" The leader asked._

"_Call me ӓiti." She soon had their attention with the tales from her childhood._

_Ӓiti died a few days later from her wounds and punctured organs._

_The Enforcers didn't move her corpse until the liquid of rotting flesh ran down the hall._

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" He mocked.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

A long-haired blond more massive than Steve crashed into the jet and grabbed Loki before leaping out of there once again.

"Now there's that guy." Stark groaned. Who the hell was _this _blondie?

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff asked rhetorically.

"Think the guy's a friendly?" Rogers asked, also rhetorically. Rhys almost opened her mouth, unsure if their questions were rhetorical or not.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Stark turned to jump out of the aircraft, while Steve yelled at him.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

"I've got a plan. Attack." Stark turned and let himself fall out of the jet.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap." Romanoff advised.

"I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legends, they're basically Gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Steve jumped out to help Stark chase after Loki. Natasha looked at Rhys.

"Please tell me you aren't going to follow them too." She pleaded.

"And miss out on the fun? Uh-uh." With a feral grin she was rapidly coming to be famous for, Rhys stepped out of the jet.

She fell through space, enjoying the feeling of the air rushing through her hair. She hadn't ever fallen from high in the sky before. She loved the feeling of freedom as she tumbled. The buffeting winds made her delirious with joy.

She noticed where several trees were falling and took off there. She landed softly about a dozen feet from Loki and did a roll on the ground to stand on her feet. Stark saw her and yelled out.

"Kid! Get outta here!"

"Not a chance!" Rhys crouched down, picked up a couple of stones off the ground and focused. A moment later, the rocks were a glob of molten steel. She tapped the ground with her other hand and sent the metal out in rivulets, watching as it snaked its way towards the dumbstruck blonde. He attempted to avoid the shiny substance but he could not escape. The molten metal covered his legs, pinning him to the ground. It hardened and the blonde gave a roar of indignation.

"What is this sorcery?!" He demanded, attacking his new metal boots.

"Woah." Stark looked at Rhys hand, down to Blondie's feet, and back. He held his hands up and backed away slowly.

"We just have some questions for you." Rhys began, but with a particularly vicious swing, the blonde released himself. The hardened metal cracked like china. He launched himself at the girl, who cursed.

Rhys waved her hand and the air in front of her solidified just in time for the god to hit it with his hammer. A loud clang rang out as Steve appeared out of nowhere and flung his shield at the demi-god.

"Hey! That's enough!" Steve looked around the clearing and when he saw Rhys, he did a double take. "Rhys?" He shook himself off and addressed the long haired man. "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here-"

"I've come here to put an end to put an end to Loki's schemes!" He declared loudly.

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down." Rhys cringed at the authoritative voice. She remembered the Enforcers and Guards sounding exactly the same as they ordered her around.

"Uh…yep! No! Bad call! He loves his hammer!" Stark flew backwards as the blonde's hammer hit him. It could've been comical except for the fact that the hammer Blondie had could do serious damage.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" The man spun his hammer and slammed it down on Steve, who, thankfully, put his shield up. Rhys had just enough time to throw up a field to stop any shrapnel. Even with this added precaution, she flew back with the force, and several trees in the vicinity were flattened. They picked themselves off the ground and Steve spoke first.

"Are we done here?"

_oOoOoOo_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Back at the Helicarrier, Loki was stuck in a giant glass bubble Rhys immediately dubbed the Evil Fish Tank of Doom.

Fury was in there talking to Loki. "In case it's unclear, you try to escape; you so much as scratch that glass," He pressed a button which opened the floor, "thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Fury pointed at Loki, "Ant." He gestured at the control panel, "Boot."

Loki snickered. "An impressive cage," He noticed Rhys stiffen; she loathed the word, "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." Loki stared directly into the camera. "The mindless beast, makes play to be the man." _You're the one pretending to be a man, you monster. _Banner stiffened and the two most uncomfortable people in the room glanced at each other's tense forms. "How desperate are you? You call on these lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you have no hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me _very_ desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. True power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is." Loki mocked, very passionate about 'real power'.

"Yeah, well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." The monitor powered down, and all of the Avengers looked at one another.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" said Bruce, poking fun at Loki.

Steve took charge, as he was prone to do. "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

"Chitauri!" Rhys coughed and whispered, surprising all of them, especially Thor.

"How do you know of the Chitauri?" Thor asked warily.

"Loki mentioned it. While we were in the jet over here. Didn't any of you hear him?" Rhys looked around, bewildered. They cleared their throats awkwardly. Thor continued.

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world known knows of. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, he will give them the Tesseract."

"An army. From outer space." Steve said aloud, as if the words would make more sense if he spoke them.

"Brilliant." Rhys drawled sarcastically. She shut herself up quickly. It wouldn't do to be considered the second most sarcastic person on the Helicarrier.

"So he's building another portal. That's what her needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce mused.

"Selvig?" Thor asked. Everybody at the table wondered how he knew him.

"He's an astrophysicist." Rhys replied at the same time Banner did.

"He's a friend." Romanoff ignored him.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Rhys snorted at her astute observation. Steve looked at her in surprise; he hadn't seen the sarcastic side of her. Obviously, something had happened to make Rhys dislike Romanoff.

"Of course he's got him under a spell. Basic mind control. It's easy, if a little disturbing. Not at all subtle though. Best if you want minions like he does." She spoke matter-of-factly and once again, she found herself at the center of attention.

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that." Romanoff shook her head. Rhys was inwardly smug. _For the show that redhead puts on, I'm a little disappointed. Not nearly as brilliant as her file says._

Steve directed the attention away from her tiny smug look, for which she was grateful. "I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Rhys opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Banner.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell the crazy on him."

"Take care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and my brother." Thor proclaimed, rather loudly, as he did with everything he said.

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha said dryly. Rhys hoped no one got ahold of the file the Prison had kept on her. If they thought 80 was a lot… What would they think of a whole secret underground base?

"He's adopted." And everyone snickered behind their hands at Thor's words.

_oOoOoOo_

"Iridium, what did they need the iridium for?" Bruce wondered aloud.

Rhys wracked her brains for the answer briefly, recalling everything she had crammed into her brain throughout the Week of Reincarnation. "It's a stabilizing agent." She said just as Stark walked in and said the same thing.

"Hey Quicksilver, remind me not to cross you when you're pissed off." Stark winked at her as he sauntered around like the charming bastard he was. Rhys wasn't sure what to think of him.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Stark then elaborated. He walked forward and smacked Thor on the arm. "No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." It looked like Stark was going to talk again, so Rhys swiftly cut across him. She didn't need him remarking on anything else.

"It means that the portal can stay open for as long, and can open as wide as Loki wishes."

Stark took the spotlight again. He seemed somewhat miffed some little know-it-all brat kept interrupting him. He stood up abruptly and nearly shouted "That man is playing Gallaga!" Steve and Rhys looked at him in confusion. "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Stark covered an eye and looked at the computer monitors where Fury worked. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns." Agent Hill said wryly.

"Sounds exhausting." Rhys watched as he bugged the computers and she smirked behind her hand. He was brilliant at creating distractions. She'd like to learn from him. Stark turned around to face them. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked, mostly to herself.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Stark retorted. Rhys felt like she should have raised her hand 'cos she had done the reading, but wisely kept her hand down, figuring Stark didn't need another excuse to keep talking.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked though he wasn't really following the conversation like Rhys was.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin to break through the Coulomb chamber." Bruce pitched in, though Steve still didn't understand.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Stark supplied and Rhys decided to give it a crack.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally! People who speak English!" Stark cheered happily and walked over to where Bruce was standing.

"Is that what just happened?"

Stark started to talk to Banner and Rhys eavesdropped once again.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Stark really grew on you, didn't he?

Banner didn't know how to respond to such…interesting… praise and just hesitantly said "Thanks."

Fury spoke. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you would join him."

Steve was really out of his depth around these guys so he started in on the thing that bothered him the most. "Let's start on that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

Rhys snorted and was about to remark on Loki's 'magical stick' when Fury responded to Steve. "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how it turned two of the sharpest men I know into his own personal flying monkeys."

Thor was puzzled. "Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!"

Everybody turned to Steve and Rhys patted his arm as he calmed down. "I understood that reference."

There was an awkward pause, so Rhys spoke to smother the silence. "Well, ah, Loki's scepter is, um, just an extension of the cube's power, right? He uses basic mind control where the cube's power basically overrides the victims will. So, we could use the spear to track the link between his minions and the cube itself, and free the people he's possessed."

"And how to you propose we do that?" Fury looked skeptical, as did everyone else.

"Let me see it. I bet I can do it."

"You better go with Stark and Banner then."

"Right…" She looked sideways at Stark, who winked.

They began to walk away and Rhys glanced back at Steve, who looked kind of lost. She flashed him a little smile which he returned, albeit smaller.

Stark tugged her along, already chattering away nonstop.

_oOoOoOo_

Steve wasn't jealous that Stark took his friend away. He just wasn't. Captain America wasn't jealous, nope, not a bit. Seriously, Steve Rogers jealous? Puh-_lease._

Alright, maybe he was a little jealous. A little, mind you.

And a little hurt. Just a little.

Rhys knew how lost he would be, how lonely he got. Why would she leave him so easily? Was he boring her? What was going on? How could she leave him?

A small part of his mind reasoned that Rhys just wanted to meet other people. He ignored it.

Maybe he'd go and visit her, just to see how she was doing.

_oOoOoOo_

Rhys' mind was spinning at a thousand miles an hour. So fast it was making her a little queasy. She was holding Loki's scepter as Banner was scanning it and she could see brilliant blue threads spread out in her mind. She could follow one only to find it was a dead end. She would follow another and it wouldn't go anywhere important.

She remembered something similar months ago. In that prison.

_The Enforcers would hold her down and strap her to a medical chair with leather strips. She couldn't move an inch. The faceless men would rip open her flesh and pierce her with needles, pumping fluids and the Blue energy into her. She would scream until her vocal chords would bleed._

_The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She was burning. She could feel her skin crackling from heat and fat dripping through her flaky skin. She was drowning. The air was forced out of her lungs. A thousand knives stabbed her and dragged her skin from her bones. She was being flayed. She was skinned and pushed into a tub of salt. It was worse that when her bleeding organs were ripped from her body in an 'experiment'. The pain was worse than when they forced her to search for a pebble in a tub of boiling water._

_No words could describe the excruciating agony she was forced into. Every nerve was on fire._

_She did not break. _

_Instead, she grew stronger. The Tesseract's power reacted with her own and she became something __**else**__. Something other than human. For a split second, she was God. An otherworldly creature capable of great feats of cruelty and even greater feats of kindness. Even while the pain brutally attacked her and she screamed and writhed against her bonds, her mind was numb. She knew everything, and saw everything._

_She felt she was no longer was human after the ordeal. The pain shaped her, molded her into something sturdier. _

_Impossible became possible. _

_Magic and power now dripped from her wounds instead of blood._

_In a flash the feeling was gone, and she collapsed._

She shook herself out of her reverie to see Tony (he had insisted she call him by his first name) poke Bruce (Tony had insisted, again) with an electrical device, just as Steve walked in.

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve demanded.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Rhys couldn't help but giggle at Sta – Tony

"Is everything a joke to you?"

"Funny things are." Maybe Steve couldn't see it, but Tony was somewhat regretting poking Bruce.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor."

"No, it… it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle… pointy things." Said Bruce.

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut." Stark encouraged. Tony really was funny sometimes. The things he said! Rhys laughed when she imagined Bruce strutting along next to Tony as Stark taught him how you're supposed to strut.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve glanced pleadingly at Rhys who was tucked into the corner. She almost fell for his excellent puppy-eyes but restrained herself at the last second. His eyes screamed '_Help me convince him. Please.'_

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables." Something occurred to Rhys. Her mouth actually dropped open. She stood up and nearly raced out the door. She heard the questions in her wake, but was focused on one thing. The thing that was causing the boys (Read: Stark) to question SHIELD.

She arrived at the door breathless. She put her hand near the locking mechanism and thought of blistering heat, not unlike the boiling water she once reached into. Through the door, she felt the lock grow warm and slight smoke began to rise from her hand. Once it reached a certain temperature, she thought of the bitter cold that she 'died' in. She heard it snap open and she strode in.

Rhys began searching crates for her suspicion. She found crates that were empty, full of uniforms, and full of papers, none of which were about what she was looking for.

Finally, she exasperatedly threw open one odd-looking crate and found the thing she was looking for in the form of guns. Big guns, with other soldier paraphernalia. She felt her blood boil and growled into the empty room. She roughly grabbed one wicked-looking guns and ran out of the room, running straight into Steve. Quite literally.

They both fell over, well, Rhys did and the gun clattered across the ground. Steve picked it up and asked quizzically "What's this?"

"The thing SHIELD is hiding." She snarled and Steve gulped before remembering he could hold his ground.

"Are you sure?"

"It's called Phase Two, and it's making weapons with the _Tesseract._" She hissed. He nodded and they ran back towards the lab.

"Wait, Steve, take this," She handed him the gun, panting between words. "I'll be along shortly."

Steve looked at the weapon shoved into his arms and asked "What are you…" He trailed off when he saw Rhys was already rushing down the corridor.

_oOoOoOo_

I've run out of pre-written stuff, so the next chapter will be a while yet. I'm not really sure where to take this. I mean I could do the cliché thing and have Loki ask her to be his partner in crime, but then she'd be 'noble' and say no, or… I dunno. We'll see.

SecretTimeLord over and out.


End file.
